 is to demonstrate the effect of MER17, a new blocking agent against the development of LSD-25 psychosis. We have used two healthy graduate students in psychology as subjects, but time permits us to show only one. On the first experimental day, Ronnie, aged 22 and weighing 75 kilograms, was given 100 gamma of LSD-25 in distilled water orally. This is a very small quantity of LSD-25, but all investigators report that it is enough to produce a temporary psychotic dissociation state in any healthy adult. The scene which follows shows what happened to Ronnie after he drank the LSD-25 solution. And if you will follow the clock, you will be able to note time intervals accurately. How do you feel after an hour? Like I should be getting sick, but it's different in that I'm not. I mean, I'd be sick by this time. Do you feel almost nausea? Almost. Good worry. Anything else? The dryness of throat, but it feels as though if I did take a drink or something, I wouldn't keep it. And there isn't. I have to maintain my attention. It's an effort to talk to you right now. Well, you were talking to Ronnie. Ron, a while ago we separated you and Dick. Do you have any idea why we did that? No. Yes, I do. You just separated us to see how we would react. You felt though that we were separating you to see how you alone reacted. And you felt that we were watching you? Is that right or wrong? No. You haven't been watching me when we were there. You don't think we're trying to pull anything on you? So, why did you assume that particular Ron had inquired with Ronnie about the separation of the two boys? Because I felt at the time of separation that Ronnie did have some very real paranoid feelings and felt as though we separated the two of them so we could spy on Ronnie alone. And yet when he sat down before the camera, he didn't voice any of those paranoid ideas. I think it's interesting that he was able to mobilize his defenses and to deny that he did have those feelings at the time. I feel that they were really there and I think he did show other evidences of paranoid feelings. Ronnie, you look tired, are you? Yeah. Have you got anything particular to report to me? Do you feel slowed up? Decisively. How is your mood? Are you unhappy? No. You feel gay? Does it seem like you've been here a big long time? I've lost all the time, but probably sometime in the afternoon is when I can cut it. Have you had any visual phenomena or any auditory phenomena? In on the couch there was nothing that can describe it. There were a lot of colorism and things taking shape. Were there geometric patterns or were they just sort of a lack of back teeth? Sort of one together and what? You forgot what I asked you? All of the auditory visual things. Yeah, we're in geometric shape, I'd say. Anything you'd like to do right now? If you had Aladdin's lamp and could do anything in the world you want to do right now, what would you like to do? Get rid of this nervousness and apprehension. Do you feel as though you're in contact with this situation and with us and the people around us? Not even a minute. Ronnie, have you been sleeping for the last few minutes? Not exactly. You've been lying down on bed? No. Are you thinking about anything in particular? What did I ask you, Ronnie? You asked me if I was thinking about anything. You're lying down and you haven't been talking. If I asked you how you felt, could you describe the way you feel? What did I ask you? No, I felt it was something that hit me. Could you answer me? I'll feel all right. Ronnie, it's been six hours since you took that drink. Are you still feeling...badly? Yeah. Do you know where you are? Yeah. Where are you? I talked to you. Has your mind been on anything in particular? Have you been thinking about anything in particular? Do you feel depressed? Do you feel elated? No. Have you been seeing anything by way of color? Have you been hearing anything unusual? If I were to ask you how you felt, could you tell me? I guess I am sad and afraid. What kind of mental activity are you going for? Confusion. Well, Ronnie, you said that you thought the sun was in the wrong position when you looked out the window. Yeah, I lost time and precision. Do you think that you're purring at all, or are you still quite mental? I don't think in the last 15 minutes anything has been improved at all. Are you anxious? Are you fearful? Are you worried? Are you nervous? What would you request for your mood ads? My mood. Do you know about what? What is your mental content been lately? Do you know what you've been thinking about? Just trying to keep things with true situations, trying to be aware of it, trying to stay in contact with reality. Have you felt a waxing waning of reality? Well, sometimes I've been confused about which is reality and which isn't. I mean, what little situations... I was aware of noises, for instance, that may have been to annoy me and may not have been. Rather than investigate, I just sort of let them go. Can you describe to us how this thing was some hours back when you were in the middle of it? Just mass confusion is all I had. That's a confusion. Would you say it was pleasant or unpleasant? I wasn't aware at the time of any pleasantness or unpleasantness. I'm still not aware of any pleasantness or unpleasantness. I'm emotionally so bad for them. Well, Ronnie, do you think the picture shows the whole story of your LSD 25 experience? Not by a long shot. The day after the experiment, you wrote out something about it. Would you mind reading a part of it? Not at all. Very little by way of visual hallucinations, but what I consider the important thing that... Well, what's the word to describe it? Dissociated, plagued, pounded, weighed? All three are inadequate to describe the horrible state I was in. All of them put together. Perhaps the central thing was suspicion and fear that you would find out about me or perhaps think things that were not true. My overwhelming concern became, are they doing this to find out how I'll act? Are they deliberately rattling that damn paper to make me angry? On and on and on this one. And, as was no doubt obvious, I decided to do as little as possible so I wouldn't make any mistakes. It was my confusion, the fact that I had to study the situation, to be careful that shall I say, rack me up. I believe that there was still a trace of that suspiciousness when we took you home that night. Do you mind telling us about the television experience? It's hard to believe, but I joined the family to look at television in the living room, and I'll be damned if it wasn't talking in loaded phrases too. That made my reason take another step toward control, and I felt better. Well, thank you very much, Ronnie. This essentially paranoid type of reaction pattern has been described repeatedly by investigators of LSD-25 psychosis. During the next week, Ronnie was given a five milligram tablet of our new blocking agent, Bryce Daly, and one final tablet on the morning of the second experimental day. Our clinical experience with Maritran convinced us that this compound was quite different from any other central nervous system stimulants that we had known before, that were interested in the effect of some of its isomers. When the nitrogen atom is moved from the alpha to the gamma position, an entirely new compound results pharmacologically, and it is this gamma isomer of Maritran, which we have used as a blocking agent against LSD-25 psychosis. We were led to its use because of some dramatic, though inconsistent results we had obtained when we used it on patients with schizophrenia. And now, let us return to Ronnie and the second experimental day. Good morning to you. I believe you've been taking one five milligram tablet of this compound with Bryce Daly throughout the last week, correct? And you took one small one. All right, now here we are with one tenth of a milligram of LSD in the still water so down the hatch. So, Ronnie doesn't seem to be at half an hour since you cut the LSD? Yes, sir. Have you got anything to report to us in this first half hour? Nothing. It's just something to report, sir. It's been an hour since you've taken LSD. What can you report for us? Well, now I can definitely tell I have taken it, but my thoughts seem to be in good shape so far. Ronnie, it's been an hour and a half since you took the LSD and I've noticed an increase in the restlessness. Yeah, extreme restlessness, yes. But my thoughts are in good control. I mean, I'm much more confident at this time than I was at. It's been two hours now since you've taken the LSD. Does it seem that that's right? Yeah, yeah, that's true. There's been no distortion of time sense? No. Of the passage of time. Well, let's ask you first how your body feels. It feels fine. There's no sensations one way or the other. Now, you've been restless. You've been a lot of pacing for a while and then you lay down for a while. Now, what can we find out about your mental processes? Have you had any feeling of drifting in and out of the world of reality at all? Well, no, no, I haven't. It's now two and a half hours since you took the LSD. Does that seem right to you? Yes, it's a bearing. There's been no alteration and distortion in your sense of time. No, I don't think so. Has much transpired in the last half hour as far as you're concerned? Well, nothing. What do the others know? Now, last week you had the very uncomfortable feeling that all of us were indulging in double talk. Is there any left feeling in you now? None whatsoever. I think that'd be a sort of a dissociative feeling that I don't have now. Anything new to report to me at this time? I don't think there's anything new. There's been no real change, I don't think, that I'm aware of. At three hours last week I asked you that if you had Aladdin's lamp and could get your most desired wish, you said that you would wish that something could be done to get rid of the nervousness that you had. Would you answer in the same way today? I'm not sure. I think I'd be more aware of the possibilities of such an offer today than I would. Lonnie, what time does it seem to be? It's somewhere, I'd say about 3.34 o'clock, something like that. Now, in the last half hour we've been sort of having a general discretion. Apostolic things, controls and scientific methods and so on. Do you seem to be sort of in what we were? I follow your conversation. If you could do exactly what you wanted to do right now, or would you be doing anything different than you're doing? Well, I could be home if that's what you mean. I could probably be doing something a little more enjoyable. What would be enjoyable in your thinking right now? I don't know, being out and outside seems like a nice day out. Lonnie, we're now at the five and a half hour after taking LSD period. You're just telling me outside that this is nothing like it was last week. It is nothing like it was last week. There are some of the same symptoms and it seems that it was ready to happen, but it just didn't. It doesn't. I mean, when I went to lie down, last Saturday I could have easily sort of been swallowed up and I was trying to do it then, just now. And it just didn't happen. You said that last week when you lay down and closed your eyes, something closed over your mind. That's right. But you can't find that today. Try as you will. Lonnie, you wrote out your experience after the second episode or two. Would you mind reading this part of it? No. It was quite similar, yet it was so very, very different. For the first time, my mind began racing and becoming tangled and eventually swallowing me up despite my efforts. The second time, my efforts to fight it all were successful. In one sentence, I think it might be summed up adequately by saying it was a fight both times, but the second time I learned. Well, thank you very much. There are probably many questions that you wish answered about this work. And, Doctor, what dosage of the blocking agent have you found to be effective? We have ranged from 10 to 15 to 20 to 30, 50 and 100 milligrams. There are individual differences. In the lower ranges, the blocking is not necessarily complete, but in the higher ranges, it is so invariably. Have you done this on any more subjects, Doctor Saving? Yes. Ate so far in a double-blind study, and the blocking effect was consistent. Is a week of pre-treatment necessary in all cases? No, sir. Already discovered that two days of pre-treatment suffices, and our guess is that it can be shortened even more. Did you say if this drug has clinical application? Well, time will tell, but we have been quite impressed with our clinical results so far in some cases of acute schizophrenia, some cases of alcoholic hallucinosis, some senile hallucinatory states, and even a few cases of chronic schizophrenia. They represent about 60 cases in all. And furthermore, we are continuing our experimental work with hallucinogenic drugs, such as mescaline, cannabis, adrenochrome, etc. Are there any other questions? Yes. Can M.E.R. 17 be used in percolation? Yes, and it's very interesting too. On December the 18th, 1954, Ronnie drank a second 100 gamma of LSD-25 without protection. Four and a half hours later, he was in an almost catatonic state. At that time, 10 milligrams of M.E.R. 17 was given intravenously and repeated in 15 minutes. This brought about a complete cessation and dissolution of his LSD-25 psychosis. Look at the picture. I'm right here. Do you feel that you're very close to us in your thinking? No. Can you tell me anything about what you have been thinking about? Is it too painful to talk about? And how long has it seemed to have been since you took the LSD? A couple of hours ago. Are you upset? No. Are you muddled? Yeah. Can you tell me anything about your thinking now? Ron, can you tell me anything about your thinking now? I can't understand. How do you feel? Does anything make much sense to you now? No. What seems to be the matter? No. Can you think? Can you tell me what's going on inside of your head? Ronny, are you frightened? Are you fearful? No. Ron, we're going to give you an injection to see whether it makes you feel any better. Suppose you taste anything to you. Do you feel anything? About three minutes since you took the injection. What can you say about things now? I don't know. Do things feel any, seem any clear to you? They do. I don't know why. Can you elaborate on that in any way? I'm just not as confused as you think. Now, Ron, it's been about 12 minutes since we gave you your injection. You just said that you feel like you have reality in your grasp and wax in your wings. That's correct. Can you tell me anything more about it? Maybe I said it's just a reorganization or a getting things in place again. Is it a pleasant comeback as it were, or is it disturbing to get things reorganized properly? No, the more I can, the more I feel better. We're giving you a second injection, about 17 minutes left to the first one. How are you feeling now, Ron? Like I'm waking up from a fever. Is it a pleasant feeling to be waking up from a fever like this? Pleasant to be back, I guess. Bill, is there any change in his blood pressure? No, his blood pressure and pulse remain essentially the same. Why it's been 30 minutes since we gave you the first injection and 15 minutes since we gave you the second one? Now, let's try to say how you feel now. I know it's hard. Well, I haven't yet a foundation from which I can speak. Do you think you feel differently than you did 30 minutes ago when you walked into this room? Yes, I guess I do very much so. Now, I may have spent an hour since we gave you the first injection. I believe things have sort of come back into the proper perspective for you. I think they have. Now, when you were under the LSD, you wanted to be in that room alone. You were fearful that there might be some sort of an invasion of your privacy, your integrity. Isn't that right? And now, that's all screwed up, and you've got things straightened away. I'm no longer anxiety-ridden about it. Are you your normal self now? As nearly as I can tell, I am. You will probably be interested in my subjective reaction to this last experiment. The first and third experiments were similar, of course. Complete and insoluble confusion and anxiety rings. And the knowledge that it's cause was a drug was my soul and small reassurance. One hallucination was that of lying flat on a slowly revolving cloud-like object. There were other similar objects all around, touching gently and revolving in gear. I just rolled slowly down into the depths of this arrangement. Another one I recall is that of a flowerbed type of pattern, or perhaps a purposeless pinball machine, with the lights arranged in rows and columns. The lights or flowers were growing then bursting in irregular fashion, one at the left, then at the center, and so on. Next occurred the phenomenon that has happened both times I lost, and perhaps I've neglected to mention it previously. Things seemed to clear up and I felt sane, yet I knew I wasn't. I seemed to wake up to a new world, the same situation, same people and environment, and yet everything, that is my mental state, my life, had been altered. I was a stranger in this world. I could no longer speak to anyone as a person. And that was my state when I was given the shot, bewildered, confused, afraid to say a word till I could be sure of which world I was in. I realized that what happened to me in those few minutes after the injection has a tremendous significance. Because of this realization, I have worked it over often since then. But God help me, I can't tell you a thing. It just happened. No crescendo, no fitting together of the pieces, no breaking through the surface. All of a sudden I found myself willing to cooperate, able to follow conversation more easily, just less anxiety written. I don't know how or why. I'm sorry, but that's all I can report.